“In Uganda in 1977, a particular trainload of coffee, mostly belonging to Dictator Idi Amin, is worth six million dollars. As a group of scoundrels and international financiers hijack the train, the double and triple crosses pile up and the comic tension escalates in a brawling brew of buffoons, bumblers, beans and boxcars.”
For one reason or another, I’ve put off reading this book for a while. Part of the reason was the length – as I’ve gotten older, books longer than 475 to 500 plus pages are not worth my time (with a few exceptions), as I have so books in my TBR pile (and add to it monthly). In addition, Westlake was known for lean plots with little to none extraneous plots and characters to keep track of. The other was that some Westlake scholars, for lack of a better word, have mixed feelings about the narrative, the people, and the fact that it’s only a handful of novels he set outside his beloved New York City (those always seemed to be seen in a negative light).
As I noted in a Part One, the heist idea was supposedly based on a true story, but while it’s certainly possible some smuggling went on in Uganda during Idi Aimn’s dictatorship, it’s probable not as elaborate as the one described here (as a matter of fact, in his Afterword, Westlake notes that “something similar did take place”, his description and all the characters -with a few exemptions of real-life ones- is all made up by him (then again, in the prologue, which is unconnected to the rest of the plot, is a reference to the real-life event on which the novel is based).
I would say I liked this book, even if it’s different than anything he usually did. There is a lot more geo-political stuff, along with some racial and sexual commentary. As matter of fact, he surprised me (and probably a lot of his longtime reader), by having some extremely explicit sex scenes in this book. Probably far more than in all those paperback ‘porn’ titles he wrote under multiple pseudonyms in the 1950s to support his family before he became a success in later decades. In some ways, while this is a heist novel, filled with real life death and violence, it’s also, strangely a relationship book, with Lew Brady seemly dealing with a trio of women who want to have sex with in. And Lew, who likes having these affairs, also loves Ellen (even if sex is seemly the only thing that connects them). But in being this way, both Lew and Ellen are not that very interesting characters.
Anyways, there are a lot plot elements in this book than I can possibly synopsize here, and I have no desire to extend this review to a third part. What I can say is the book is good, not great, it carries a lot of violence, commentary on the Amin regime (which came about due a coup backed by the British and the Israelis in 1971, and who odiously came to regret it. But even as Westlake unflinchingly describes a number of killings, including those of two major characters, it is not a nasty book like some of his darker thrillers; only Amin and his regime are portrayed as nasty).
It’s worth the read, even if a tips into being a bit overlong. But I would also agree with most Westlake scholars, this is not the book to start reading his oeuvre. It’s too complex and you don’t really get what he was doing here until you’ve read a few of his thrillers, a handful of Parker tales, and some of more humorous tales.
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